Keep Your Poison
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: Week 2 of the Azula ship challenge; Partners in crime. In a cyber goth/solarpunk(ish) AU with the world on its last legs, Azula and Toph go thrill seeking and mischief making around some old industrial parks.


They were just two beat down kids in a beat up world.

No wonder it was so easy.

So easy to run away.

So easy to fall in love.

So easy to make such a mess, to have such a thrill.

Days in the city of breathing in smog and staring at distant smoke stakes were taking their toll on Azula. Listening to the noisy clatter of industrial trains constantly on the move transporting mountains of coal, iron, and metal to the factories. Azula knew it wasn't much better for the neighbor kid, Toph in an apartment with a leaky ceiling, dented walls infested with rats, and a tattered matters stock full of mites. She sighed and took a drag from her cigarette. She supposed she should be grateful; at least she lived in a house, however trashed it was. And it was decently trashed, your typical decaying yet somehow overgrown lawn littered with heaps of trash; a few rusty car parts here and over there, a weather abused swing set that hasn't been used in year. Broken pieces of their house that had landed in their yard, a beater car that was on its last breath of exhaust fumes. Shards of a flower pot that called back to a time when flowers could still grow. A cracked birdbath reminiscing of when their mom was still with them.

That was what did their family in. They were never well off; nobody was these days. No one but the oil tycoons, unbreakable cooperations, and the industrial fanatics. Azula had reason to believe that even they had it bad now that there were so few people left to buy their products. They probably realized that they fucked up. But they keep up their poison, because what else did they have left to do? No one stopped them. It was too late to do so anyhow, everyone was just waiting for the world to die off in one last polluted cough. Her own family didn't feel the effects until after Ursa had fallen ill just like everyone else who couldn't adapt to the new toxic air. The Airbenders dropped like flies. Balance was thrown off and soon bending was a thing of the past.

Azula peered over at Toph's sorry excuse for an apartment and counted her blessings again. Zuko was a nervous wreck and Ozai was a hopeless drunk who had the biggest hand in letting their house go. He also couldn't be assed to go to work—not that she blamed him. He used to work for Tak-Dom's Rail Co., 'proud' owner of the smokestacks in the distance. One of four major companies that violated the world. At least her father had the decency to feel like shit for playing his part. Her family was a disaster, they didn't even talk anymore, content to be alone with their own demons. But at least she had a family. Toph was living alone and was able. Azula couldn't remember the last time she'd seen any form of security or authority, much less someone to check on the kid. Azula speculated that no one even knew that anyone lived in the apartment. But Toph seemed okay with that.

But Azula knew it, she decided to make an adventure of exploring the broken world she lived in. That's how she met Toph. Toph with that spunky bandana she had tied over her mouth and that quirky pair of goggles that sat on her head. Toph who took her by surprised and bashed her a good one with a baseball bat. Toph who tied her up and held a gun to her head and told her that she'd used one before. Toph who held her captive for a good two days.

Azula liked Toph. The kid knew how to survive. She also knew where to go if you wanted to forget the world for a while. And if all else failed she knew how to make a good time. Azula taught her how to skateboard and Toph taught her the best spots to breach the closest factories. She said that she needed to get food somehow and wasn't a good cook. Eventually though, they began breaking in not for to steal the food—it was pumped full of radiation anyways—but for the thrill. Azula would pick up her board, adjust her studded gasmask that she was lucky to have received (back before things got wildly out of hand, at the time it was more or less a trend to have), and venture with Toph into the warehouse.

On their first endeavor—one that happened only after the pair had felt each other out, Toph handed Azula a bat adorned with rusty nails and drawings that were both cute and crass all at once. "I thought I'd give it to you as a token of our friendship." Toph had said.

"This is the one you hit me with, isn't it?"

Toph just smirked.

And they were off. Since Toph didn't have a board of her own, Azula let her wrap her arms around her waist and told her to hold on. Over the wind rushing passed and the sound or kicking up pebbles Toph would shout things like, "make a left, now a right, keep going straight." Finally, they had arrived. Azula called with vivid detail how putrid the place smelled. Toph forgot to mention that the secret entrance was positioned smack in between a compost that hadn't been emptied in months and a waste discharge pipe that spouted colors all over the nasty green and gaudy brown spectrum. Azula recalled nearly retching on the spot, only managing to keep it down so not to make herself look like a wimp. She watched Toph scope the ground. Azula had figured that the girl was looking for something to help them force the warehouse door open. Intent on proving that she was a useful partner, she rummaged through a pile of scrap metal and rusty iron beams. Wedged between two, she had found a crowbar. "That'll work." Toph declared. And in minutes they were sneaking around the building. Not that they had to. The place was both trashed and empty. Though Azula was certain it was still in use on occasions.

That night they stole a considerably sized crate of food and a wrench. And that night, in light of their first success, she kissed Toph, if for no other reason than just to try it. But she liked how it felt to do so, both of them did…

From then on they moved on to wilder adventures that included skateboarding in the 'stay out' sections of the industrial park, looting stores—nothing major, just to see if they could—and smashing car widows just for the hell of it. And on the nights when they were to wiped to do anything else, they'd share a smoke.

Before the world began to decay, Toph was someone Azula would have never talked to. Toph had moved in from the east side. The part of the city that was known for being less civilized, if she was putting it gently. The BeiFong family started out in poverty—it showed in the way Toph talked and in her posture among other things—and had finally gotten out, just in time for the world to go poor. Azula had been raised to, "stay away from that lot." Perhaps she should mind her father's words, before Toph the worst that she would do was swipe a light from Lo and Li. She snickered to herself, it's not like there were laws anymore. She took another drag and watched the smoke puff into the sky. It reminded her of the smoke stacks that never ceased to stop puffing, and for a fleeting moment she felt guilty. The skyline already had smog on top of smog, what did it matter if she added a breath more of it? She yawned, deciding that a trip to Toph's place was long overdue. She stood up and stretched, pulled her ratty sneakers on, and headed across the cracked street. She noticed that some vines had finally pushed through some of those grass and made a note to take a quick picture before they shriveled up and died. At the thought, she tightened the gas over her nose and lips.

Tonight, Azula just wanted to relax—relatively speaking—so she was going to suggest a trip to BioBlaze. A secret rave nestled in the hidden tunnel of the abandoned Laogai water works that played somewhat disconcerting machine sounds and electric vocals over techno beats. A place for teens like them. People who still somehow managed to be misfits in a world full of underdogs.

Toph has never been there and would surely get a kick out of it. It would be the best birthday present Azula could muster up. She gave the door a sturdy knock. Apparently too sturdy, for her hand went through the rotting wood.

Toph inspected her newly decorated door. "Surprise." Azula grinned.

"Gee, thanks." Toph muttered.

"Have you ever heard of BioBlaze." Azula asked.

Toph tapped her chin, "nope, don't recall."

"Wonderful." Azula replied, taking Toph's hand. "It's my turn to show you a hidden part of the city."


End file.
